Ramsar sites are natural locations under the protection of the Ramsar Convention for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands. As of March 2013 there were 35 Ramsar sites in Russia, totalling an area of 103,237.67 km2.[1]
The first Russian sites registered in the Ramsar Convention, on 11 October 1976 (during the Soviet era), were Kandalaksha Bay Lake Khanka and the Volga River delta.